Sen. Mike Duffy is hoping to extract a lofty sum from the Senate and the RCMP, arguing they unfairly subjected him to a witch hunt that resulted in gross Charter violations and salary loss that now demand some form of compensation.

But legal experts well-versed on civil lawsuits of this sort say it could be a tough slog for the P.E.I. Senator.

At the heart of Duffy’s $8-million lawsuit is a claim that the Red Chamber and the Mounties ran roughshod over his rights in their dogged pursuit of a scapegoat for public outrage over questionable expenses.

Duffy claims he was “threatened, cajoled, arm-twisted and rebuked” by former prime minister Stephen Harper’s office to publicly admit wrongdoing even though he maintained all expenses were above board.

The Conservative-controlled Senate was then the “government’s servant” and booted him from the upper house to serve a political agenda when things went awry. The RCMP, in turn, hastily assembled a criminal case that unfairly subjected Duffy to humiliation among other ills.

In his statement of claim, filed Thursday, Duffy said his Charter rights under section 7 (the right to life, liberty and the security of person), section 11(d) (the right to be presumed innocence) and section 12 (freedom from cruel and unusual punishment) were ignored throughout this scandal by both the Senate and the police.

“The system makes it really hard to allege a violation of the Charter based simply on a suspension from a position, loss of pay and the mere fact you were charged for a crime; it’s hard to argue that leads to a Charter violation when you’re ultimately acquitted and your job is reinstated,” Carissima Mathen, an associate professor of constitutional law at the University of Ottawa, said in an interview.

Someone must be held accountable for spending accusations: Brazeau

Spending in the upper chamber still needs to be cleaned up, Sen. Patrick Brazeau said Thursday as he promised to push for more changes when he makes his triumphant return to the Senate in the fall.

Brazeau said someone has to be held accountable for the fact that he has spent the last three years of his life under what he describes as false allegations of misspending and wrongdoing.

Brazeau summoned the media to his Ottawa office Thursday and spoke out publicly at a news conference for the first time since his long, difficult legal saga began more than three years ago.

Brazeau has long insisted he did nothing wrong when he filed housing claims for a secondary home near Parliament Hill, noting he met the test the Senate now uses for verifying a primary residence.

Independent auditors from Deloitte couldn’t conclude he broke any rules because the rules themselves were so vague, he added. But the Senate rejected that finding and ordered Brazeau to repay about $49,000 in housing claims.

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Months later, in November 2013, Brazeau was suspended without pay in an emotional vote in the upper chamber. Some Conservative senators abstained, believing it unfair to treat Brazeau the same as fellow members Pamela Wallin and Mike Duffy.

Brazeau said he wants the whole thing to be “water under the bridge,” but knows that may be impossible.

“What happened in the Senate with me in particular … was unjust and somebody needs to be held accountable,” he said.

“And I’m going to work darn hard to make sure that place gets cleaned up, because each time you hear senators saying, ‘Oh, well, we changed these rules and we changed those rules’ — well, they haven’t done enough and I’m going to start working on that right away.”

The rule changes, a key pressure point in the Senate, are at the heart of a dispute between one senator and the Senate committee that oversees spending. The committee has threatened to cut off Sen. John Wallace’s expense privileges if he doesn’t sign a declaration saying he is in compliance with Senate rules.(Source: Metro)

Mike Duffy makes quiet return to Parliament Hill

Mike Duffy returned to Parliament Hill on Monday, a little more than a week after a court dismissed all of the 31 charges against him related to his Senate expenses.

The P.E.I. senator casually strolled past waiting reporters without saying anything, and entered Centre Block through the front doors that lead to the Senate chamber. He was similarly silent when he later came upon reporters outside his third-floor office.

The Senate is not sitting Monday, but Duffy could return to the Upper Chamber when business resumes on Tuesday. He has not appeared in the Senate since 2013, when he addressed the controversy around his expenses shortly before senators voted to suspend him without pay.

That suspension ended with last year’s election call. And with last month’s verdict, Duffy was cleared to return to the job to which he was appointed in 2008.

Senior Conservative senators have already said that they will fight any effort by Duffy to collect that back pay saying the suspension process was separate from the criminal trial proceedings.

“There is no appetite among senators to revisit this. It brings back some very tumultuous times,” Conservative Senator Leo Housakos, chair of the internal economy committee, told CBC News last week.

Claude Carignan, the leader of the Conservative opposition in the Senate, added Monday that he is staunchly opposed to cutting a cheque to Duffy.

“I completely disagree with [back pay for Duffy]. If he asks for that I will disapprove because that was in fact a completely different situation. He was suspended on a disciplinary sanction for negligence in the management of his office. His criminal charges were something completely different,” he said.

James Cowan, the leader of the Senate Liberals, added that it would be up to Duffy to make his case to fellow senators.

“Any senator is entitled to bring anything before the Senate,” Cowan said outside the chamber. “I think the proper thing is to let Senator Duffy come back and make his own decision about how he should behave and deal with that situation, and then we’ll deal with it. But it’s not up to us, it’s up to him.” (Source: CBC News)

Judge clears Mike Duffy of all charges

A judge in an Ottawa court has cleared Senator Mike Duffy of all 31 criminal charges and delivered a scathing indictment of the political operations of the office of former prime minister Stephen Harper.

He called the actions of the Prime Minister’s Office under Harper “mind-boggling and shocking.”

Justice Charles Vaillancourt said Harper’s former chief of staff Nigel Wright and other PMO staff executed operations with a precision that would make any military commander proud, all with the objective of containing political damage.

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Duffy was another “piece on the chess board,” and the unwilling partner in a scheme to cover $90,000 in expenses, even though they were likely legitimate, Vaillancourt said.

“Could Hollywood match their creativity?” he asked.

Vaillancourt called the senator a “credible witness” and said the Crown failed to prove the case on any of the 31 charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust.

While some of the actions might be seen as “unorthodox,” they were not criminal, he ruled.

Duffy’s lawyer Donald Bayne said the “vindication” should cause those who rushed to judgment like a “political herd” to give serious thought about their actions.

“Political figures, public figures are also entitled to due process,” he said. “Senator Duffy has been subjected in the last two-and-a-half, three years to more public humiliation than probably any other Canadian in history,” he said.

Vaillancourt said Duffy’s travel claims had no financial or “sinister” motive and no “criminal intent,” the judge said.

He also concluded that payments made for third-party services funnelled through his friend Gerald Donohue to pay for editorial services, makeup and fitness training were “appropriate.” And he said there was no evidence of kickbacks or altered invoices. (Source: CBC News)

Duffy trial sapping Conservatives’ morale

Even a contrarian would not argue that Stephen Harper’s campaign is off to an inspiring start.

A mega-trade deal that would have given the Conservatives a win on the economic front just in time for the election call failed to materialize.

Looking at the polls, there is little evidence of the lift in party fortunes that last month’s round of child benefit cheques was meant to result in.

Harper’s main rivals each used the first leaders debate of the campaign productively enough to keep the contest too competitive for the incumbent’s comfort.

In Quebec, the positive impact of the return of Gilles Duceppe on Bloc Québécois fortunes has turned out to be short-lived, throwing a wrench in the Conservative game plan. The party needs the Bloc to soften up New Democrats in the ridings that Harper has targeted for gains in October.
Now the Senate scandal is again front-and-centre in the media, predictably sucking out the oxygen from the Conservative election tour.

Nigel Wright’s long-awaited appearance at Sen. Mike Duffy’s trial may not have implicated Harper further in the spending scandal but it certainly did not give the 2011 Conservative supporters who have since strayed to other parties a reason to run back to the fold. (Chantal Hebert, Continued: Toronto Star)